5 ms·
In the United States, a room must have a closet to be considered a bedroom. If you want to build cheap housing, one way to lower cost is to not to have a closet
by yostrovs 4y ago
In the United States, a room must have a closet to be considered a bedroom. If you want to build cheap housing, one way to lower cost is to not to have a closet, something that matters in high density housing. But then you can't market your apartments as having N number of bedrooms. That's a non-safety regulation that's quite arbitrary since prior to about 100 years ago closets were very rare, but many of the houses from then still stand. Mine's master bedroom doesn't count as a bedroom, dropping the value of my house considerably.
- dboreham 4y agoIs this a national thing? I'd been told it varies by jurisdiction. It's also made up by the local realtors, iirc, not a government regulation.
- InitialLastName 4y ago> In the United States, a room must have a closet to be considered a bedroom. Source? I can't find any that confirm that using actual codes (at least on a national scale), and many (from sellers and lenders, no less) that rebut it [0][1], nor do I see it in the FHA housing policy handbook [2, PDF]. It's possible that real estate businesses customarily don't let you market bedrooms without closets, but that's not regulation. [0] https://www.rocketmortgage.com/learn/what-qualifies-as-a-bedroom https://www.rocketmortgage.com/learn/what-qualifies-as-a-bed... [1] https://www.realtor.com/advice/sell/what-is-a-bedroom-features/ https://www.realtor.com/advice/sell/what-is-a-bedroom-featur... [2] https://www.hud.gov/sites/documents/SFH_POLI_APPR_PROP.PDF https://www.hud.gov/sites/documents/SFH_POLI_APPR_PROP.PDF
- yostrovs 4y agoI may be wrong about the regulation of this, but in effect that's the case. Maybe it's what realtors consider bedrooms, but that's how our house was listed when we bought it and three different unrelated realtors told us the same. If my example doesn't count, how about from the first link you provided: "A bedroom must be accessible from at least one common point in the house such as a hallway or living room. In most cases, a room cannot be considered a bedroom if it is only accessible through another bedroom in the home." This doesn't seem like a safety regulation, but a matter of what is considered appropriate these days - people shouldn't be walking through a bedroom on the way somewhere else.
- InitialLastName 4y ago> in effect that's the case. When it's private organizations agreeing to rules about what they will or will not advertise as a bedroom for the purposes of commercial communication, that's called "capitalism" not regulation. To your other point, not all regulations have to be about safety to be valid. Preventing what is effectively false advertising ("bedroom" has a presumption of privacy for the inhabitant that is belied by having to traverse another person's private space) seems like a valid use of regulation. You can still sell the house, and a buyer can still observe that the room is usable as a bedroom, but you can't advertise the house as having a bedroom that a reasonable person wouldn't consider such.
- mh- 4y agoThis isn't true. There is no national standard to this effect, nor do most (like 46-47) of the states require it. Some municipalities might - I couldn't find any data in a few minutes of googling.
- flerchin 4y agoMaybe in your jurisdiction, not in mine. I have the same master bedroom setup, and it shows up in my country records.